Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: OIO on March 22, 2005, 02:20:02 PM
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from CNN:
"BOSTON - A Harvard University librarian claims in a lawsuit that she has been rejected repeatedly for promotion because she is black and is perceived as just a "pretty girl" whose attire was too "sexy."
As a jury was chosen Monday to decide her federal lawsuit, Desiree Goodwin said she's been rejected for 16 jobs at Harvard since 1999, when she completed her master's degree in library science after attending night classes at Simmons College for 4 1/2 years.
Goodwin, 40, also has a master's degree in English literature, seven years of experience in the library of Boston College and another nine years as an assistant librarian at Harvard.
"I feel no matter how much education I achieved or how many contributions I made, there was nothing I could possibly do that would impress them so that they would open the door for me to allow me to advance," Goodwin said during a court recess.
She said she was shocked when, in late 2001, her supervisor told her she would never be promoted at Harvard. In court documents, Goodwin said her supervisor told her she was "a joke" at the university's main library, where she "was seen merely as a pretty girl who wore sexy outfits, low cut blouses, and tight pants."
She said after the conversation with her supervisor, she modified her appearance and wore more conservative clothing, but she continued to be turned down when she applied for better positions.
Goodwin says in her lawsuit that she has suffered emotional distress and lost $150,000 in wages as a result of Harvard's failure to promote her since 1999.
Harvard denies that it has discriminated against Goodwin. University spokesman Joe Wrinn would not discuss the case Monday, citing the impending trial. But in earlier interviews, Wrinn noted that Goodwin's case was dismissed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
"This case is without merit," Wrinn said just after Goodwin filed her lawsuit in 2003. "Gender and race were not factors."
A jury of seven men and one woman was chosen to hear the case, with opening statements scheduled for Tuesday.
At the encouragement of U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro, lawyers for both Goodwin and Harvard huddled in the court hallways Monday to discuss a possible settlement. Neither side would comment. "
Never ceases to amaze me. She wasnt promoted since 1999 and she's suing that shes being denied advancement because she's a black woman?
Never mind she admits she dressed up like a potato (im sorry, but 'dressed up too sexy' and 'tight pants' in an interview doesnt show her education) and built up a reputation for being dressed like that since she kept applying at the same place for years... even if she changes her attire the damage is already done.
If it was anyone else she'd have probably moved on and applied for a similar job in another university...but since she's got the race card to play she goes ahead and sues.
Un-believable.
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Discrimination is impossible! It never happens! How dare she even bring it up?
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Umm are there other jobs besides librarian at a library? lmao
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i keep wondering who i can sue for something, i feel like i am missing out.
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Discrimination is everywhere! It always happens! How dare we ever doubt a claim!
:D
Were you been MT? This place is not the same without ya!
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Library science? What is that? The study of the dewie(sp) decimal system?
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Originally posted by john9001
i keep wondering who i can sue for something, i feel like i am missing out.
When ever a gay discussion comes up sue for "non-gendernormative harrasment" ;)
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Originally posted by john9001
i keep wondering who i can sue for something, i feel like i am missing out.
Sue yourself.
Surrender yourself to you.
Make sure the proceedings are probative, fair, and fearless.
Judge yourself as impartially as is possible.
Reach a just verdict.
Render an appropriate sentence.
Carry out that sentence.
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Living in Oakland and working in San Francisco I run into this all the time. My father and mother are middel american white bread. My father joined the USAAF in 1947. In 56 he was stationed at Casablanca Morroco. I was born there. Makes me a White African American.
I was jokeing about this in front of an american african american who was born in Oakland and has never traveld outside of california. He tried to have me written up for racist remarks.
In the subsiquent review on the matter I asked the nice white HR reviewers if they had any idea of where I was born. The answer was "No". Upon telling them they were speachless. They had no clue how to proceed. The PC hand book on racism didn't have a page to cover me. After all I was not born in South Africa.
Also my deceased brother in law was black. When his family heard I was born in Africa and threw javilin in college, they started calling me a white african american spear chukker after spear chukker jones from MASH. Yeah I know Jones was black in MASH.
The HR reviewers were totally lost when I explained my brother inlaw. His family. My 2 nieces and nephew, and 3 grand neices by one neice with 3 different fathers who now lives in Atlanta with a 4th gentelman.
Ultimatly they suggested I might not want to make myself a target. Personally I think thats reverse racism. But heck what do I know, when I went to UMES which is 99% black, the american blacks kept telling me and my room mate who was from Ziare to go back to Africa. Maybe it didn't help when it came around to where we we all were born I could only find myself and the 12 students on visas from Africa were born in Africa.
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Ultimatly they suggested I might not want to make myself a target. Personally I think thats reverse racism. But heck what do I know, when I went to UMES which is 99% black, the american blacks kept telling me and my room mate who was from Ziare to go back to Africa. Maybe it didn't help when it came around to where we we all were born I could only find myself and the 12 students on visas from Africa were born in Africa.
Yup Half these people (not all) will scream and cry and play the race card (wich does happen in America to ALL races not just blacks) but are more than happy to dish it out as well.
I'm not racist, I hate everyone equally ;)
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Because I was born to an american service man on foreing soil I was born a US citizen. I just like to trot out my background story to the Malcom X's story of american history 3rd grader generation from 1967 and find out how PC programmed they are.
As far as I can tell while living in california, the only race or sexualy oriented group that hasent out right descriminated against me because I am a 6ft tall WASP is those littel gray guys with the big eyes who drop in from area 51 Nevada in flying sausers to party in the castro.
Upping the anti that Im 1/16 Souix on my mothers side of the family is good for outright pandimonium with some california groups. I still remember the Lesbian collition of ceramic potters in Berkeley that tried to convince me it was ok for black men to murder me because all oppressed minorities deserve the right to strike back at their oppressors. And also true Lesbians because White males oppress them. Told them the story of my background and they reduced my sentence to being severly beaten up. But only because I was 1/16th Souix on my mothers side.
Its amazing just how many groups in the US outright wish ill, harm and death to white people. And to top it off don't think it's racism. Glad I'm part Souix. NASH whom do I sue now?????
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Ewps.... Ya read so much here that yer often reduced to skimming.
And sometimes it gets hard to tell the truly absurd, from the truly absurd.
Doctor, please remove the hook from my mouth. It was planted there by Lesbian pottery chicks from Berkely who wish me harm. I'm 1/16th Souix; the government can pay for the procedure.
Holy chit... Good night.
:D
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NASH,
My great great grand father Brink setteled in South Dakota in the 1880's. He had two sons. One took a full blooded Black Foot Souix for his wife. He had 2 sons. My mother is the daughter of one of those 2 sons. I'm a 1/16 Souix.
I'm too old to care about lieing to people or hooking them. Ive had way too many escapades in my long life to need to lie. Most people younger than I accuse me of lieing because they cannot conceive of having lived where I have or done the things I have.
You ever looked at Gibralter from Africa or looked at it close up? Ive been told I was a good baby and didn't get sick on the ferry over from Casablanca. Guess Ive been to the gates of Hercules.
Have you seen the chalk man in England or the chalk horse? Have you ever sat in a spitefire near Dunstable Downs when you were 5 while a color sargent told you the story of the Battle of Britan?
Bet you have never watched K2 through a morning mist while a U2 climbed over the Hindu Kush on its way to Asiatic Russia from Peshawar Pakistan. Or crossed the Kyber Pass and visited Kabul. Or watched a mongoose fight a cobra. And all this befor I was 8. By the way I don't reccomend catching bats in Pakistan. Some carry rabies. The 21 shot pasture series can only be described as letting someone stab you in the stomach with a nail 21 times.
Bet you have never climbed inside of the B17 and B24 on static display at Lackland Feild in Texas. Then watched a flight of B52's take off from Kelley AFB in San Antonio an hour later. Or climbed through the XC-99 built from the B36 on display at Kelley. Or watched F-101's, 102's, 105's and F4's take off in pairs day in and day out for 2 years. Or watched a B58 Hustler take off. And I only reached 10 by this time. And there was still Japan, a volcano, some ice floes, and Vladivostok, the Pueblo incident, Hokkiado, Wakkinai, Sapporo, Tokyo and I was 12 by that time.
And all this was before computers and Al the Gore invented the Internet.
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Wow, she's 40? I'd hit it.
(http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20050321/capt.bx10203212209.books_vs_looks_bx102.jpg)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050321/480/bx10203212209
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It pry all started when she didn't get a role on "Good Times."
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Are they mad? I'd give her the job;) :lol
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sue sue sue
sorry, I wouldn't know she was "black" unless ya told me
maybe she just ain't qualified for whatever
maybe she needs to look outside the university for employment
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Heck yea! she coulda just 'passed'.
:aok
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bustr... question, the 100% Souix woman was your "great grandmother"?
making grandma 50% making mom 25% making you 12.5% if i am following the tree properly.
i am exactly the same, grandmother mother was 100% cherokee.
i am 1/8 cherokee
under federal law, if you are registered with your tribe you may recieve full native american benefits if you are 1/8 (12.5%) or more. that's the cutoff
since you can follow your tree back that far maybe you should look up and register with the tribe.
my grandmother was harrassed as a child about it, and claims it is not true to this day, and it has been hard for us to trace it back, but my 2nd cousin or something found out enough for us to know the truth.... unfortunatly we need to find a birth / death record for the great grandmother and have been unable to find one (noone has physically gone to oaklahoma to research this, which is what we need to do to get the proof the gov. needs)
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So you were serious bustr?
Well I'll be damned...
This place is nuts.
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"Oooops! We thought she was Mexican."
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Update:
Library Assistant Loses Suit Vs. Harvard
Mon Apr 4, 7:58 PM ET U.S. National - AP
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - Harvard University did not discriminate against a library assistant who claimed she was repeatedly turned down for promotions because school officials saw her as "a pretty girl" whose attire was too "sexy," a federal jury found Monday.
Desiree Goodwin, who is black, also claimed that Harvard passed her over because of her race and gender. She had been seeking damages for emotional distress and lost wages.
"One of my friends said to me, no matter how it turns out, standing up for yourself is a victory in itself," Goodwin said after the verdict.
Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn said the university was pleased with the ruling.
"Employment at Harvard is based on the specific work skills and work history applicants bring to specific jobs," he said. "We have always believed that to be the case and today the jury has agreed."
Goodwin, who has worked as a library assistant at Harvard since 1994, claimed in the lawsuit that she had been rejected for seven promotions at the library since 1999.
She said she was shocked when, in late 2001, her supervisor told her she would never be promoted at Harvard. In court documents, Goodwin said her supervisor told her she was "a joke" at the university's main library, where she "was seen merely as a pretty girl who wore sexy outfits, low cut blouses, and tight pants."
But Harvard attorney Richard Riley said Goodwin's supervisors encouraged her, helped her with her resume and recommended her for other positions. For each job she applied for, Harvard received applications from dozens of other qualified applicants from across the country, he said.
Goodwin's claims were dismissed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
Goodwin, 40, testified earlier in the trial that she overcame a childhood marked by poverty and a chaotic family life to attend Cornell University, Boston College and Simmons College, earning a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, including one in library science.
She said she has no immediate plans to leave Harvard, although she is looking for library jobs elsewhere.
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you are only saying that because i am beige. - recent retort.
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Did nobody even notice that her case had already been dismissed by the EEOC? And the state anti-discrimination board as well. I cant believe after both of those dismissed her case as "without merit", AND she filed a frivolous lawsuit that no one is screaming to take the witch's head off. People like this minimize the impact when someone really does have a case. She should be punished for wasting taxpayer money and to protect people who truly do need the help of the system to get justice.
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How do you know when "someone really does have a case"?
Does the executive branch have to give its blessing?
shamus
BTW, love your sig :)
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If she couldn't win this case in Cambridge MA............
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But does that make it a frivolous lawsuit?
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Originally posted by Shamus
How do you know when "someone really does have a case"?
Does the executive branch have to give its blessing?
shamus
BTW, love your sig :)
Erm... no, but if the EEOC refuses to take a case, given some of the silly things they have sued employers for over the years, AND the state level anti-discrimination people refused her, that should be a warning sign right there. I mean, thats what those people DO. Her case was judged "without merit" before she ever filed a lawsuit. I'm just saying, it makes it harder for people who truly have been discriminated against or given shabby treatment to be taken seriously.
And ty. :) I've got the broken bones to go with it too lol.
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Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2
Erm... no, but if the EEOC refuses to take a case, given some of the silly things they have sued employers for over the years, AND the state level anti-discrimination people refused her, that should be a warning sign right there. I mean, thats what those people DO. Her case was judged "without merit" before she ever filed a lawsuit. I'm just saying, it makes it harder for people who truly have been discriminated against or given shabby treatment to be taken seriously.
Granted it can percieved that way, but I do have a problem relying on the executive branch too much as a litmus, they are far more political than the courts.
Anticdotal evidence is not worth much to a person not involved, but I had an expirence on one occasion where as an employer I was told by department of labor employee's that if I would kick in a couple of grand per on a few complaints, they would "go away".
I filed a lawsuit against the department of labor and the investigation was dropped.
Now had I lost that lawsuit, I sure would not have felt that it had been frivolous.
shamus